The institution of courts of justice, the supervision of native courts, the protection of the peasantry from oppression by their rulers, and the deposition of the latter when incorrigible, the reorganization or imposition of taxation for revenue, the prohibition of slave-raiding or slave-dealing, the restraint on firearms, liquor, and the destruction of game, the disposal in some cases of unused lands or minerals—in a word, the arbitrary enforcement of justice and good government and the safeguarding of natural resources,—all these are acts of sovereignty which no African chief would willingly concede by treaty to an unknown stranger, but which fifty and more nations of the world have now formally recognised as the essential duty of the Mandatory Powers, who under the covenant of the League are to be nominated as the protectors and trustees of backward races. For the civilised nations have at last recognised that while on the one hand the abounding wealth of the tropical regions of the earth must be developed and used for the benefit of mankind, and on the other hand an obligation rests on the controlling Power not only to safeguard the material rights of the natives, but to promote their moral and educational progress.